A New Ending
by Kasi Karra
Summary: Lidia loved to read and she did nothing, but read. When a store owner warns her of a new book with a bad ending, Lidia says she'll dream up another, but is her ending any better then the last . . . Please R R


Lidia loved to read

She read books everywhere she went. School, shopping, jogging, it was almost impossible to see her without a book. The times when she couldn't read, she would listen to books on tape or write her own.

Her math teacher learned to accept her A tests with a small new story plot printed along the side. Her brother learned not to bug her at a book's climax, unless some major disaster was occurring. Her parents learned not to get her books for Christmas because she had usually read them already. So they got her gift cards to different book stores.

Lidia just read everything, from fantasy, to biographies, to newspapers to the school textbooks. The libraries and local bookstores couldn't find new books fast enough for her.

So it was no surprise when she found the small faded book with its pale pink leather covering and a pale yellowish design in the back of a tiny bargain store. She knew immediately that she had to read it.

The owner warned her as he typed numbers in the cash register, "You won't like this book. It has a very bad ending."

"Then I'll dream of a new one, like I always do," Lidia replied as she took the change and skipped out of the store.

That night after her homework was done; she opened the book and let her imagination dive in. To Lidia, it was a wonderful book. "What was the old man thinking," she thought. "They're all short stories and they're all great!"

Each story was the story of new heroes. Each hero made their journey and each hero fell in the end. It was great. The books at the library rarely did this. This was great, almost new.

Lidia was almost half way done with the book when she glanced up at the clock. It read 4:30 am. She knew she had school in a few hours, but she wanted to finish this last story. Her head fell on the pillow just as the last words went through her head.

No sooner had her gentle snoring filled the room, a plant began to creep out from between the pages. It grew bigger and bigger covering the girl.

"Come . . . Come . . . Come . . ." the little buds whispered as they caressed her rosy cheeks. "Come . . ."

Lidia smiled. Her mind was in another world again. "Yes I will," she whispered to the birds she imagined around her in an enchanted forest.

The bulb in Lidia's night stand light shattered as the plant and Lidia disappeared into the pages of the pale pink book.

Lidia awoke to the sound of barking. She opened her tired eyes to see a small wolf urgently barking by her feet.

"Tagelian?" she asked as she rubbed her tired eyes.

"Hurry," Tagelian said urgently as he transformed into a young boy of 12. "Yukimaren is mad and headed this way."

"Yukimaren?" Lidia asked when the realization hit her. Yukimaren was the ogre from her dream last night. The same one that she had been having for the last couple weeks. That must mean that she was Eliven the ogre assassin with Tagelian her werewolf friend, but that meant . . .

A blood curdling roar interrupted her thoughts. Lidia rolled to the side narrowly avoiding the two ton spike club that landed where she once lay. Lidia shakily stood as the ground rolled under her. "This feels so much more real," she whispered. "I hope this is a dream," she said under her breath as she unsheathed her two large hunting knives.

Lidia jumped up and fought by Tagelian's side, but in her heart she knew the outcome. She had tried to change the outcome in so many dreams over the past weeks, but it was no use and some how she knew that trying to change it now would be just as useless.

Tagelian made another move to attack, but his move was a fraction of a second too late. The last Lidia heard of her friend was a quiet painful whimper.

Lidia fought on. Dodge the giant club, slash with a knife, spin away, duck under the club's deadly path, jump as the Earth heaved under her feet. But in the back of her mind she could hear the countdown.

5 . . .

4 . . .

3 . . .

2 . . .

1 . . .

Lidia tripped on a rock and fell to the ground. Yukimaren saw his chance and brought down his club with all his strength.

Lidia saw the club come closer and closer. Then suddenly . . .

. . . Blackness and . . . Numbness . . .

But even in her blind and numb state she could sense the presence of other children . . . fallen heroes and warriors . . .

Back on Lidia's bed the book closed itself. In the early morning light the book cover shone a deep blood red with the famous white design of the skull and crossbones . .


End file.
